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Does Social Media Contribute to Economic Growth?

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Abstract

This paper assesses the effects of social media on economic growth in a sample of 177 countries. The originality of the article lies in highlighting the direct and indirect effects of social media externalities on the process of economic growth. Unlike existing works, we study this nexus from a global perspective using a cross-sectional model. To achieve this, we specify and estimate a panel data model using ordinary least squares (OLS) methods over the period 2012–2019. The robustness of the results has been proven by using Poisson pseudo maximum likehood (PPML) and the quantile regression (QR). The results show that social media as measured by Facebook penetration improves economic growth. Furthermore, the results of the mediation analysis show that the effect of social media on the economic growth is mediated by financial development, human capital, information and communication technologies (ICT), electricity consumption, and political stability. We suggest, in addition to the quantitative and qualitative strengthening of the telecommunication infrastructure, a rational use of social media for a better consolidation of economic growth.

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Data Availability

Data will be made available on request.

Notes

  1. Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

    and TNW: https://thenextweb.com/tech/2019/06/11/most-popular-social-media-networks-year-animated/

  2. See Biagi (2013) for further literature.

  3. For more details, see Youssef and M'henni (2004).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to sincerely thank the Editor, the different anonymous referees of Journal of the Knowledge Economy, whose comments, reviews, and suggestions have substantially improved the first version of this article. They also thank the extraordinary editing work and Désiré Avom and Flora Yselle Malah for sharing the database on Facebook penetration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Dschang, ACEDA, P.O Box: 110, Dschang, Cameroon

    Jacques Simon Song

  2. Dschang School of Economics and Management, ACEDA, LAREFA, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon

    Georges Ngnouwal Eloundou, Fabrice Bitoto Ewolo & Blaise Ondoua Beyene

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 9 Description of variables
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Table 10 List of countries by sub-region
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Table 11 Alternative dependent variables
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Table 12 Differentiated effects according to the development level (QR)
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Song, J.S., Ngnouwal Eloundou, G., Bitoto Ewolo, F. et al. Does Social Media Contribute to Economic Growth?. J Knowl Econ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-023-01419-1

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